Did you know Republican Sen. Frank Lasee voted for a bill earlier this year establishing a technical college district revenue limit?

Or that Democrat Eric Genrich voted against new legislation 37 percent of the time since taking office in 2013, when Republicans controlled the Legislature, while Democrats as a whole voted no 42 percent of the time? (Vote counts were incorrectly counted in an earlier version of this story.)

Or that only one lawmaker voted against a 2011 bill expanding child abuse mandated reporting requirements?

We hear lawmakers spout their positions during debates, campaign speeches and commercials. We hear opponents make noise about what the other side stands for or against. It's hard to discern fact from fiction.

One neutral barometer of lawmakers' actual positions is their voting record, but that's neither easy to find nor digest.

I decided to take on the challenge of creating a tool for Press-Gazette Media readers to overcome that obstacle. The initial version is already up and running.

For some background, the tool pulls voting data from the Sunlight Foundation's Open States project, which tracks and collects data on legislative activity in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Press-Gazette Media's tool includes voting histories for all current legislators in the state Assembly and Senate. Records go back to 2009. You can search votes on individual bills or look at complete voting records of individual lawmakers. You can also find bills by subject.

The tool also provides a quick visual comparison of each lawmaker's voting record versus his or her party. In other words, it's a reference for how partisan a voter that lawmaker is.

There's plenty of opportunity to expand the tool in the future with more information, more analysis and more visuals. My hope is that people find it useful and relevant as the election season heats up.

I've also been tracking campaign contributions. It seems political spending in the governor's race and congressional races is scrutinized heavily, but most state legislative campaigns avoid attention.

In addition to articles on the subject, I've been maintaining a database of individual contributions to candidates in Northeastern Wisconsin races. This includes both incumbents and newcomers.

Even if you've already decided whom to vote for, please check these tools out. More people paying attention to these fine details can only help bring about a more informed community overall.

—arodewal@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @AdamGRodewald.